hippiewikiaorg-20200214-history
Central Park Be-In
Between 1967 and 1968 several Be-Ins (WP) were held in Central Park to protest against various issues such as US involvement in the (WP) and combating (WP) racism (WP) with civil rights (WP). This park was a place where all of the different types of people that New York contained could mingle. Central Park Be-In The first gathering of this kind in Central Park was not actually called a Be-In. The Human Be-In (WP), the very first Be-In, from which all the Love-Ins and Bed-Ins to follow got their names, was held in San Francisco two weeks later. The (WP) was still weeks away as thousands gathered in Central Park's Sheep Meadow on Easter Sunday, March 26, (WP), 1967 (WP). Radio station WBAI (WP) and others encouraged everyone to be in the park to celebrate Spring.Richard Friedman, 1967: New York City Allen Ginsberg (WP), dressed in white with a red sash and playing his finger cymbals, was the most noted attendee among the 10,000.Be-In NYC 1967 (Continued) includes photos of Ginsberg Other Wikipedia:New York City celebrities included Abbie Hoffman (WP) and Edie Sedgwick (WP). Edie Sedgwick & Friends contains raw footage of the Be-In (1:04-3:30) Protest against the War During the 1960s America was involved in the Viet Nam War (WP). This war was a controversial one. Not all the demonstrators were aware that the US had breached international law in sending troops, and backing a regime that had violated the 1954 Geneva Agreements by unilaterally declaring what was intended to be a neutral zone, South Vietnam. More were aware that the elections in "South Vietnam" were corrupt, that the US puppet Diem had persecuted Buddhists there, and Buddhist monks had burned themselves to death in protest. But all were against the US involvement in Vietnam. Many other issues added to the tension of the Americans against the war: the The Draft (WP) that might well send them to fight in Viet Nam, the struggle for Civil Rights, the move to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 (old enough to fight and die for the US, but not old enough to vote in it), the criminalization of Marijuana (WP) and the recent California ban on LSD (WP) (it was to be banned nationwide in 1970). These and other issues confronting Americans had lead to an emergence of a generation of people who had succinctly identified "the establishment" as their root cause, themselves as part of the counter-culture, and believed that they should do anything possible to go against the establishment. Central Park had been declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. Organizers decided that the park would be the perfect locale for the demonstrations of the counter-culture generation. New Year's Eve 1967 On New Year's Eve 1967, a group of one thousand people accompanied by music and geese burned down a Christmas tree in Central Park. The Parks Commissioner, Thomas P.F. Hoving, was present at the event. About this demonstration, he stated, “We're going to do this again… you know, It's old hat to go to Times Square when we can have such a wonderful happening in Central Park”. Easter 1967 The Easter be-in was organized by Wikipedia:Jim Fouratt an actor, Paul Williams editor of Crawdaddy! (WP) magazine, Susan Hartnett head of the Wikipedia:Experiments in Art and Technology organization and Chilean poet and playwright Wikipedia:Claudio Badal.Central Park Rite is Medieval Pageant Village Voice March 30, 1967 With a budget of $250 they printed 3,000 posters and 40,000 small notices designed by Wikipedia:Peter Max and distributed them around the city. The Police and Parks Departments quietly and unofficially cooperated with the organizers. An estimated 10,065 people participated in the event at the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. The majority of participants were Wikipedia:hippies. They were joined by families who had attended the Wikipedia:Easter Parade and members of the Spanish community who were notified of the event by Spanish language posters. The Wikipedia:New York Times described them as “poets from the Bronx, dropouts from the East Village, interior decorators from the East Side, teachers from the West Side and teeny bopper (WP)s from Long Island” and said that “they wore carnation petals and paper stars and tiny mirrors on foreheads, paint around the mouth and cheeks, flowering bedsheets, buttons and tights”.Bernard Weintraub, "10,000 Chant 'L-O-V-E'; L-O-V-E Is Theme of Park 'Be-In', 27 Mar 1967 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70A17F63E5D107B93C5AB1788D85F438685F9 The event was guarded by a small number of police. At 6:45 a.m. the first police car arrived. The car was covered with flowers while the crowd chanted of “daffodil power” at which point the police quickly retreated. While police held their distance most of the day, 5 officers did approach two nude participants, at which point the officers were surrounded while the crowd chanted “We love cops/"Turn on cops”. The situation was defused when the crowd at the urging of other participants backed off. At 7:30 at night the police beamed lights on the group and used bullhorns to tell participants to disperse. Again the police were rushed by participants. Following a brief period of tension the police decided to let the event continue. Black and white film footage from this event appears in the 1972 film Ciao! Manhattan (WP). April 15, 1967 Less than a month later another anti-war (WP) rally took place as a part of “The Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam”. Once again the number of demonstrators grew drastically to an estimated 100–400 thousand attendees. This peace rally, which assembled and started off in Central Park and then marched to the United Nations, was said to be the largest of its kind at its time. The demonstrators ranged from Sioux Indians from South Dakota to members of the African American community rallying for the causes of Peace and Civil Rights. There was a peace fair, which featured performances by folk singers and rock groups. People held signs that read “Don’t Make Vietnam an American Reservation” “Make Love not War” and “No Vietnamese Ever Called Me N.gger”. The protesters then made their way from Central Park to the U.N., where speeches were given by several leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. (WP)Benjamin Spock and James Bevel. Dr. King declared that the war in Vietnam was a “conflict against a coloured people” and that “white Americans are not going to deal in the problems of coloured people when they’re exterminating a whole nation of coloured people”. Although there were five arrests made during this demonstration, they were of counter-demonstrators who staged an Anti-Communist rally. Around 75 protesters burned their draft cards (WP)s."Huge Peace March Spans Wide Social Spectrum" ''Village Voice April 20, 1967 Later that spring the counter-culture revolution continued in Central Park but this time “Armed with electric guitars”. About 450 people attended the concert. Various bands such as The Grateful Dead Grateful Dead|(WP)] performed for the gatherers who originally were scheduled to gather in Tompkins Square Park but was forced to move to Central Park. The New York Times dutifully performed their task of alienating its readers from the attendees by described the latter as “young people, some with bare feet and others wearing sandals or socks who did some moderately contortionate dancing at first. But then the pace quickly changed and soon they were jumping around like rag dolls being jerked by wires”. 1968 During this year, the Peace Rally and the Easter Be-In were combined into a single event. About 90,000 people ranging from veterans to religious groups to African Americans to Puerto Ricans to Women groups to labor groups to students gathered at Sheep Meadow. Amongst the speakers at this particular demonstration was Coretta Scott King who spoke in place of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr. who had been assassinated earlier on April 4. In her speech she said “The inter-relatedness of domestic and foreign affairs is no longer questioned”. The Village Voice (WP) described the crowd as apathetic and said there was a feeling that this had all been done before.Sunday in the Park: Yip-Out or Has-Been? Village Voice April 18, 1968 Early 1969 During this Be-In/Peace Rally, the Village Voice reported that there was said to be between 15–20,000 people in attendance. This be-in became more radical than the other be-ins that previously took place in Central Park as bonfires erupted. One person described Sheep Meadow as having “the aura of a bombed out battlefield”. Things became even worse when one person leapt into one of the bonfires. When he was finally pulled from the bonfires by other demonstrators, word came out that an ambulance would not arrive until Sheep Meadow was cleared. Because the crowd would not disperse, the man had to be carried through the crowd to be transported to the hospital. Three police officers were injured when the demonstrators hit them with rocks. November 1969 In November 1969, protesters took a different approach and organized a lie-in at Sheep Meadow in Central Park. About three thousand protesters laid out blankets on Sheep meadow and held white and black balloons used to symbolize those killed and those potentially killed in the war in Vietnam. This lie-in was met with opposition from some city officials. The park is the city’s public space, but the officials and some members of the general public showed how little they cared for this concept by attempting to deprive demonstrations and demonstrators of its use. Censorship of the Be-Ins In 1965, citizens of New York experienced their first blow against their freedom of speech (WP) as Commissioner, Newbold Morris, refused to give them a permit that they would need in order to use a section of the park for anti-war speeches. Opponents of the ban called it a form of discrimination. In 1967, Parks Commissioner August Hecksher proclaimed that Central Park would no longer be allowed to serve as a venue for mass demonstrations because they were disruptive and caused damages to the park which were costly. People gathered in protest and held up banners and burned draft cards in the park anyway. Hecksher felt pressured to set up designated areas just for these types of demonstrations such as Randall's Island. As a part of the compromise made by the New York Civil Liberties Union, a separate area in Central Park was set aside for big demonstrations. See also * Wikipedia:Human Be-In * Wikipedia:Flash mob ;Further reading * McNeill, Don. "Be-In, be-in, Being", at villagevoice.com * "For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: The April 15, 1967 Antiwar March from Central Park to the United Nations", at WalkingOffTheBigApple.com * Gallese, Sebastian. "Peace, Love and Central Park", at Wikipedia:Brown University External links * Flickr.com * Richard Friedman * YouTube.com External links * Richard Friedman's first-hand accounts * Be-In 1967 * Be-In NYC 1967 (Continued) Wikipedia:Template:Anti-war Wikipedia:Template:Central Park References ;Notes Category:History of New York City Category:1967 in the United States Category:1967 in New York Category:1968 in New York Category:1969 in New York Category:Central Park Category:Hippie movement Category:Opposition to the Vietnam War Category:Counterculture festivals Vietnam War Category:Vietnam War Category:Political controversies in the United States Category:Cold War rebellions Category:Counterculture of the 1960s Category:Counterculture Category:Be-In Category:Hippie festivals Category:Hippie gatherings